By Samuel Solomon
The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated the Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness at the State House, Abuja.
It is also committed to sustaining Nigeria’s current zero-case status while positioning the country to play a leading role among African nations in epidemic preparedness and response.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed this in a statement signed on Thursday titled ‘Federal Government Inaugurates Presidential Task Force On Ebola Preparedness, Targets Zero Ebola Case.’
Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, who chairs the task force, said the government was intensifying preventive measures to ensure that Nigeria’s present Ebola-free status remained unchanged.
He said the country would draw on hard lessons from the 2014 outbreak in which a carrier arrived in Lagos and triggered a national scramble that nearly overwhelmed public health systems before it was contained.
“We inaugurated the committee today on Nigeria’s preparedness for the Ebola Virus Disease.
“We have covered a lot of ground, and there are presently no reported cases in the country, which is good news.
“That is why all hands must be on deck to ensure that preventive measures are prioritised rather than curative measures,” he said.
The former Speaker of the House of Representatives added, “We do not want a repeat of what happened during the last outbreak when a carrier entered the country, and everyone was scrambling to respond.
“Today, we have covered a lot of ground and established structures to address any potential threat.
“We have set up sub-committees to address key areas of concern, and hopefully Nigeria will take the lead among African nations. We will not follow, we will lead.”
He said the Federal Government’s strategy was informed by the institutional memory and structural lessons drawn from the 2014 outbreak, in which Nigeria’s response, widely praised internationally after the fact, was nevertheless reactive and improvised in its early stages.
“We have learnt valuable lessons from the 2014 outbreak and are building on those gains by putting structures in place to eliminate any gaps in our preparedness,” he said.
On the scope of the reach of the task force, Gbajabiamila disclosed that coordination had been established between the Federal Government and states hosting international airports, including Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory, to ensure effective monitoring and rapid response at the country’s primary points of entry.
He said land borders had been given particular attention, given the high volume of cross-border movements in Nigeria’s porous frontier zones.
“There is also significant emphasis on land borders because of the high volume of cross-border movements.
“The Border Management Agency, Immigration Service and border communities are all involved,” he said.
The Chief of Staff added that the task force was designed not merely as a crisis response body but as a permanent institutional framework with the durability to outlast any single outbreak cycle.
“We want to put in place permanent arrangements and structures so that in two or three years, if another outbreak occurs, we will not be running from pillar to post trying to establish response mechanisms,” he said.
He disclosed that the task force comprises sub-committees on border management, immigration control and disease surveillance, with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention providing overall technical leadership and coordination across all committees.
The inauguration was attended by a wide cross-section of federal and state public health authorities, aviation officials and international health partners.
Those present at the event included the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo; Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Jide Idris; Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Olubunmi Kuku; and the WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Nigeria, Dr Pavel Ursu.
Also present were the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee at the State House Medical Centre, Dr Victoria Ogala; Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi; Mandate Secretary for Health Services and Environment at the FCT Secretariat, Dr Adedolapo Fasawe; Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr Vincent Wachukwu; Enugu State Commissioner for Health, Prof George Ugwu; the Director of Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Charles Nzelu; and the Deputy Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gwendy Omije.
Managing Director of the Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust, Niniola Williams, and Dr Ismail Abdulsalam, a renowned epidemiologist, were also in attendance.
The inauguration follows President Tinubu’s earlier approval of N10bn in emergency intervention funding for Ebola preparedness and the activation of a series of precautionary measures at the country’s international airports, including enhanced passenger screening, temperature checks, QR code-based pre-arrival health declaration systems for passengers from high-risk countries, and the immediate activation of referral and isolation centres at Lagos and Abuja airports.
